COMICS: Scott Snyder On DEATH OF THE FAMILY

The Batman crossover event Death of the Family is in full swing and it's anyone's guess as to where the Joker's machinations will lead Batman, Robin, Nightwing and co. Continue on to find out what's next in Scott Snyder's story. Mild Spoilers.

Below are two separate interviews with DC Comics writer Scott Snyder about his Death of the Family story arc taking place across all the Bat-family books. If you've been following along then it's an insightful peek into what motivated Snyder to write the story and where it's headed in the next few issues.
Washinton Post: Seems the Joker is pretty confident about whose face is underneath the cowls and domino masks. One has to assume that is going to lead to some major problems for the Bat-family, if they aren’t safe in their civilian guises, either?

Scott Snyder: That’s part of the big mystery of the story. In Issue 14 (which hit shops and tablets Wednesday), [the Joker] makes a claim about knowing who they are, and whether or not that’s true is one of the big conflicts and mysteries of the story.

WP: Fans will no doubt remember the Death in the Family storyline [when the Joker murdered the second Robin, Jason Todd]. Now that Jason is back among the living, what can fans expect when the Joker comes face to face with the Red Hood? I’m not saying they haven’t met before since Jason’s been back, but there’s still a dark history between these two.

SS: Oh yeah, and Joker is going to put him through the ringer like you’ve never seen before. He wants to say “you are why Batman is weak. You are why Batman is soft and old and no fun to play with anymore and deep down Batman wants you all dead. That’s why he allowed me to do that to you Jason ... and so I’m going to do him a favor.

Joker’s thinking in our book has to do with the notion of him imagining himself as a court jester to his Bat-king. Historically, the jesters’ role was to give the king the bad news. What the Joker thinks he does is bring the worst news to Batman’s heart to light by delivering these nightmares to him.

And now we shift over to the Newsarama portion of the interview, which is a bit more spoiler heavy so be forewarned.

Newsarama: In issue #14, he seemed to be way ahead of Batman, because he knew what was going to happen and just finished that part of the story on his own, wanting something more. But he seems to be delighted in the Batman. He loves him in his own twisted way, doesn't he? And feels he's going through this plan to help him?

SS: He really believes in his heart that he's doing Batman the favor that Batman can't admit he wants done, which is, he thinks that Batman regrets having accumulated this family because he knows that it makes him slow and weak and all of this stuff, and worried about the world all the time, the way a father would.

It's that sense of constant worry about your kids and wishing once in awhile you could just turn it off or put it on pause, you know? But not being able to. And that's part of being a family.

And that's the perfect point for someone to come up and whisper in your ear: "I heard that. I heard you think you would love to have just a minute of pause or a minute of refuge from worrying about these people you love. So let me make that easy for you and kill them all, and then you won't have to worry, because deep down, I know that's what you want."

So that's what Joker believes about Batman, and he's going to be sort of making his case throughout this story, as to why Batman loves him more than the family, and he loves Batman more than the family loves Batman.

And then issue #16 and #17 just go completely berserk, in terms of what The Joker has planned. So you can only imagine how amazing those are going to be. The pages coming in so far from #16, where some of the more twisted things happen, are just completely out of control. So something like including the flies was completely his idea, and the idea of The Joker's face kind of rotting and rotting as this story goes on.

So he contributes not only these amazing ideas on the page, visually, but he also contributes great story ideas. He couldn't be a better partner, honestly. It really is a special relationship.

There's a ton more over at the site so click HERE to read the interview in FULL. Here's the Death of the Family checklist below. Oh, and it's pretty heavily hinted that somebody won't be surviving the event, who do you think it will be? Personally, I could see Damion taking a dirt nap and Tim moving back into the Batcave.

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Catwoman completely diluted the DotF effect. Joker is in love with batman (Catwoman #14)... No. No no no. Maybe if its an undertone, or in subtext, but not when it's said out loud. I really wanted to like the 2 Catwoman books, but by the end of Catwoman 14 I said "FÜCK THAT SHÏT!"

You know what's worse about this arc? As awesome as it is for most books, through all of these interviews, everything Snyder says, is repeated through Joker's dialogue (or vice versa, the chicken or the egg). It deteriorates the substance for people like us reading those interviews

See, there were these two guys in a lunatic asylum... and one night, one night they decide they don't like living in an asylum any more. They decide they're going to escape! So, like, they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light... stretching away to freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend, his friend didn't dare make the leap. Y'see... Y'see, he's afraid of falling. So then, the first guy has an idea... He says 'Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I'll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!' B-but the second guy just shakes his head. He suh-says... He says 'Wh-what do you think I am? Crazy? You'd turn it off when I was half way across!

Please for the sake of all thats good, kill Damien. I thought jason was killed because he was such a dick...so why are both he and Damien still around? I hate Damien, and I hate Morrison...Joker, kill him too please.

@LEVITIKUZ: aw man that's too bad cuz DC takes forever to release the hardcovers, I know u already said u prefer print over digital but if ur not really into collecting might as well get the digital cuz the story is what matters the most no? Or at least that's my opinion :)